India

India, one of the most spiritual and – at the same time – one of the most shambolic, densely populated, and polluted nations in the world. This is the country where Buddhism was born. A country whose economy has been growing incredibly fast in recent years, widening even more the gap between the rich and the poor. I had been longing to visit India since I was a child, the more so since coming to live in Asia. But one knew it was not an easy country to travel in for all of the above reasons, and I was biding my time, which finally came at the beginning of 2015. The next three posts include my trip to Bodhgaya, where the Buddha attained Enlightenment, and my subsequent visit to Sarnath and Kushinagar where – respectively – the Buddha delivered his first sermon and where he passed away about 2,500 years ago. The first visit, my first ever to India, was made in January 2015; the second, two years later in January 2017.

The big statue of Buddha (18 metres) in the middle of Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad